Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Killl*, Kiling (for Kill*, Killing)

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird, and to raise money for literacy awareness, a marathon reading of the Harper Lee classic took place at our local independent bookstore on Saturday, Nov. 6. "Until I feared I would lose it," says Scout, the book's protagonist, "I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." To Kill a Mockingbird, which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961, was Harper Lee's only book. She showed similar reticence throughout her life when receiving numerous honorary degrees: she always declined to make a speech. Ms. Lee was the childhood best friend of another famous Southern writer, Truman Capote (the model for Scout's friend Dill), with whom she helped research the book In Cold Blood. The typo Killl* shows up four times in OhioLINK today, and Kiling three times.

(President George W. Bush awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author Harper Lee during a ceremony, Nov. 5, 2007, in the East Room of the White House. Photo by Eric Draper, from Wikimedia Commons.)